Elon Musk confirmed Tesla’s plan to build his electric semi truck, the Tesla Semi, at his next new factory in Austin, Texas.
At the 2017 Tesla Semi presentation, the automaker said the electric truck would come in 2019, but the vehicle has since been pushed into “low-volume production in late 2020.”
The timeline was later extended to 2021, but Musk recently told employees in an email obtained by Electrek that “it’s time to bring Tesla Semi into volume production” without updating the timeline.
During the conference call that followed Tesla’s 2Q 2020 financial results yesterday, the automaker’s management team made new comments that gave us a better idea of the production plan.
It was such a brief mention that we lost it during our first listen to the call, but Musk confirmed that the Tesla Semi will be built in Tesla’s new Gigafactory in Austin.
The CEO said when speaking of the new factory:
“We are going to build a major factory there. And it’s also where we’ll do Cybertruck there, the Tesla semi-program, and we’ll do Models 3 and Y for the eastern half of North America. ”
It is the first time that Tesla has confirmed a production location for the truck.
Jerome Guillén, Tesla’s automotive president and head of Tesla’s Semi program, added some comments about the plan during the same call:
“We will start production next year, as we announced earlier. I personally care a lot about the project. I can’t wait. We have some trucks that are still running and that can deliver cars. But we will accelerate that. I want to make it clear that the first units will be used by us, Tesla, to transport our own cargo, probably mainly between Fremont and Reno, which is a fantastic test route. We are going to demonstrate that we have very good reliability. So far, the first units have it, but we will do it on a larger scale. And we have also promised some initial units to some long-term, very patient and supportive customers, and we will. ”
Guillén previously said that Tesla plans to be its best customer when it comes to the Tesla Semi. The automaker operates a large fleet of trucks and hopes to reduce its logistics costs by switching to electricity.
A Tesla Semi prototype was seen delivering cars in recent quarters:
Even after factoring in the higher purchase price, Tesla has promised a much lower operating cost per mile for the electric truck, which could have a major impact on the trucking industry.
The executive confirmed that the bottleneck that slows down the Tesla Semi program has been the supply of battery cells, but mentioned that Tesla hopes to have more cells to expand the line next year.
Tesla has been taking reservations for the electric truck and said the production versions will have 300-mile and 500-mile range versions for $ 150,000 and $ 180,000 respectively.
However, Musk said they found opportunities to extend that range during testing, saying the Tesla Semi production version will have closer to 600 miles of range.
The taking of Electrek
I can’t wait to hear the updated Tesla Semi production specs and most importantly, the cost of operation per mile.
As for the timeline, it will be difficult in 2021 if they are going to build it in the new factory.
In fairness, we’ve heard that Tesla has an even more aggressive timeline for Model Y production at the new plant, but that’s only for a general assembly line.
As we previously reported, Tesla has also been moving into Gigafactory Nevada to support Tesla Semi production, so that should help.
They could end up taking a similar approach to the initial production of the Model Y at Gigafactory Austin in shipping parts from elsewhere and simply assembling the vehicles at the new factory.
We’ll see.
What you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
FTC: We use automatic affiliate links that generate income. Plus.
Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.
